After reading the rules, I'm really excited to play. The game play mechanic seems straightforward and quick (as in most DoW games) and I love the flexibility of allowing 2-5 players. It just may prove to be a perfect anytime, anywhere game.

There was one thing I read that I wasn't quite sure about: in turn Phase III, Sending Ships Out, the rules for sending a ship to a port say:
"If there are already other players' Ships in this Port, the player must place a stack of coins that is at least 1 Coin greater than any of them."

Does "any of them" really mean "any one" in that if there are multiple ships in port, for example, one on 5 coins and another on 3, you could place a ship with 4 coins? Or would you need to play 6 coins to "outbid" the ship with the most coins?

Obviously not having played yet, I don't have the feel for the gameplay, but while it seems logical that you would generally always want to have the most coins in a port to scare off the competition, it might be effective to move into an already busy port just to create the perception of a possible bidding war. If the existing high bidder's will to win that port isn't strong enough, he may choose to just pull out and save his coins and let the other players spend their subsequent turns outbidding each other. Or maybe that's just too defensive a strategy to be effective in this game? Just curious.

Agreed, read the rules last night and I'm really looking forward to this. I love auction mechanics, although many auction games are rather dry/repetitive. The hybrid of worker placement with auction, and the free-flowing auction style looks very promising. I'm also quite pleased with the fixed game length (ala Small World). Pre-ordered!